UKS MASEC Mission Logs [Picture Heavy] | UPDATE: Back in business, again!

[Cashen]

Anubis Update: Ike, and the Return Home

Last time on UKS MASEC Mission Logs: The team had taken off from Duna, and made the transfer to Ike. The landing site has been selected. They've picked the same general area of Ike as the ILP lander that landed here with the Duna/Ike Science Package. The site borders light and dark regions of Ike and the crew hope to return samples of both kinds of material. The location is near the limb of the visible part of Ike as viewed from Duna, near Ike's retrograde side, so Duna will hang low in the western sky. The plan is to land on Ike at local sunrise, spend the entire day there, have the crew spend the night on the surface during their sleep period, and ascend the next day. Not long after, the transfer window back to Kerbin opens, and they'll make their departure.

The lander, having been re-fueled, undocks and prepares to make the descent onto Ike. This is the uppermost stage of the Duna landing vehicle, now making a landing on Ike without the lower two stages discarded on Duna. Here we see it with legs extended and lights on, with the landing site ahead where the light and dark regions meet.

Richbur: Nice and steady.

Wildon: Just like landing on Mun, isn't it?

Richbur: Yeah, a lot like Mun. A little easier, actually. We look to be right on target. I love these NovaPunch Bertha engines, nice and powerful, so we can slow right down with quick bursts. Don't get me wrong, NAMLARV is nice to fly, but its twin nuclear engines aren't near as powerful, and you have to make long braking burns and landing at a specific spot is much harder. Just ask Jonbart, when he and I landed in a crater on Mun.

Wildon: Yeah but you also had a rover along, so landing at a point wasn't so important.

Richbur: True enough.

Richbur: Touchdown! We're only 230 meters west of the ILP probe, too!

Mac: Outstanding landing!

Mac, as mission commander, gets to decide who gets out first. While he could easily take the glory for himself again, he has decided to defer to someone else.

Wildon Kerman makes the historic first steps on the surface of Ike. His first words aren't quite as poetic. "Well, it would be a shame to come all this way to Duna, and not make a stop at Ike, right?"

Wildon also plants the flag at the landing site, with the other four crew members present.

The Ike surface stay will last a full Duna day (which, due to tidal locking with Ike, is also an Ike day). They have until sunset to explore and collect samples. However, without a rover, they're limited to the immediate vicinity of the landing site. Wildon and Jonbart will pair up and head northwest into a valley to do some geology, while Mac and Richbur will head east to the ILP probe. Wehrrigh will remain in close proximity to the lander, to maintain communication with Aten up in orbit.

Even without a rover, the RCS packs are a pretty good way to get around. Here Jonbart heads northwest along with Wildon (not visible). Each crewmember has 5 liters of monopropellant in their packs, and the rule is that once they're down to 3, they have to come back, which provides a good safety margin.

Jonbart: The rocks here look a lot like the ones on Mun.

Wildon: This whole place looks a lot like Mun, just with fewer craters. You'd almost have to look up and see Duna to realize you aren't on Mun.

Richbur begins the trek east, here hopping over the lander to do so.

This wide angle shot shows Mac and Richbur at the ILP landing site, with Anubis visible over the crest of the hill, showing how close their landing was.

Richbur, standing on the probe: So, when you guys first landed on Mun, you know back in the Aten days, why didn't you land near the ILP probe there?

Mac: Well that ILP probe was the first time we'd tried to land anything anywhere. So they picked a flat impact basin because it would be easy to land in. By the time we came along, we had more confidence in our ability to land, so picked a more geologically interesting spot. Plus ILP didn't land on a kethane reservoir which was our primary mission.

Richbur: I guess in this case they landed the ILP at a geologically interesting spot already.

Mac: That's correct.

Wehrrigh busies himself with collecting samples in close proximity to the lander, while keeping in communication with Jedlock and Gilfal who remain in orbit. Speaking of which...

Jedlock: We're coming right over you guys now. Got the camera trained on you. Pretty nice view from up here! The lights on the lander really make it stand out.

Richbur: Looks like Moho, Kerbin, Jool and Eve, left to right. Or rather, bottom to top.

Mac: Crazy to look back at Kerbin, seeing how far away it is.

Richbur and Mac make a big, high arc to hop over to the next point of interest. The lander and the probe can be seen in the background.

Mac: You and Wildon were right, this really, really looks like Mun. It only kind of looked like Mun from Duna, but up close I can hardly tell the difference.

Richbur: That view of Duna is really spectacular though.

Speaking of which, Jedlock and Gilfal snap this photograph of Duna-rise while in Ike orbit, as a tribute to this famous photograph of Kerbin-rise, taken by Bob Kerman during Aten V, the first landing on Mun (which was also commanded by Mac Kerman).

After a hard day's work, the crew gather to watch the sun first disappear behind Duna, and then briefly reappear (shown here) for a short while before setting on the horizon. They'll spend the night sleeping in the spacecraft.

The next morning, it's time to wake up and get ready to leave.

Richbur: Liftoff! So long, Ike.

The final rendezvous. Jedlock and Gilfal bring the Aten IEV in to dock with the Anubis Lander.

The phase angle aligns with Kerbin, and also, Ike is in the proper place in its orbit. Richbur plots an escape burn from Ike that will swing them down to Duna, with a Duna periapsis perfectly aligned with where they need to burn to get home. A quick, simple, two-burn slingshot escape.

Unlike the Aten missions, in which the lander was deliberately crashed, Mac orders that the remaining fuel in Anubis be transferred to the Aten spacrcraft and Anubis be permanently left in orbit around Ike, as a monument to the mission. After spending so much time in the lander's crew quarters on Duna, they've grown attached to it, and so decide not to destroy it. Nevertheless, it will be left behind as they perform the first burn to escape Ike.

Not long after, the second burn, to escape Duna altogether, and head home to Kerbin.

A look at Duna through the small window in the crew compartment, from about 50km up, just after completion of the Trans-Kerbin burn. "We're on our way home, boys."

The next day, they've left Duna's sphere of influence, and begin the long coast in solar orbit back home. A small 55 m/s correction burn places them on an intercept course with Kerbin. One last long look back at Duna.

And with that, this phase of Project Anubis comes to an end. The project will continue to function in a low-level as decisions are made with if, how, and when, to set up a permanent presence in the Duna system. But, the first manned interplanetary mission is a success, which is a big step towards further exploration, at Duna and at places further beyond.

[astropapi1]

Wait a second, AM I DREAMING? IS THIS REAL?!

YES!

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!

WOO HOO!

[Logan.Darklighter]

Awesome work on these! Love the descriptions and dialogue. Think you'll ever have cause to refuel and use the lander in orbit around Ike again? Maybe send up a small refueling package to fuel it in case it's needed for some rescue operation somewhere?

[Cashen]

Awesome work on these! Love the descriptions and dialogue. Think you'll ever have cause to refuel and use the lander in orbit around Ike again? Maybe send up a small refueling package to fuel it in case it's needed for some rescue operation somewhere?

Thanks! I doubt I will ever use the lander again, but it's possible I suppose. It was very purpose-built for the landing on Duna, originally just the upper stage of the Duna lander, when I decided to slap landing legs on it and use it to land on Ike as well. My original plans had a dedicated Ike lander as a separate vehicle and simultaneous surface stays on Duna and Ike by the different crews. So it's kind of a weird design, a small but powerful lander with a high crew capacity. Might be useful as a rescue vehicle I guess. I kind of envision sending a NAMLARV (If you're familiar with my Mun lander that carries a detachable rover along with it) when I set up shop at Duna/Ike permanently, but I'm not sure when I'll be back in the Duna system, since I have eyes on Jool first.

Thanks for reading!

[Scotius]

Long and fruitful mission Duna system is beautiful, isn't it? Anyway, i can't wait to read about your take on long-term Jool exploration.

[Cashen]

Horus VIII: Shuttle Endurance Test

Development of the Horus Shuttle continues. Bill, Bob and Jeb have been extremely busy with test flights lately. MASEC has considered adding additional pilots to keep up with the workload, but for now the three veterans are performing well enough. One possible use of the Shuttle is as a simple long-distance cargo and passenger plane, able to perform long range atmospheric flights. Jebediah has circumnavigated Kerbin in the smaller spaceplane, and now Bill and Bob will attempt to repeat this task in the much larger shuttle. For this mission, the oxidizer and monopropellant tanks will be empty, but the shuttle will carry a full load of fuel, in both of its own fuel tanks as well as both cargo tanks. 4144 liters in all. The two are set to take off just after sunrise, during a mostly cloudy morning at KSC.

Bill: We are wheels up and on our way!

It doesn't stay cloudy for long when you can just fly up and over them! They climb at 45 degrees until 10km and then start to gradually level off, aiming for a flight altitude around 23km.

The mountains west of KSC poke through the clouds, but the space launch complex is obscured.

Bob seems to be enjoying himself as they reach speeds high enough for shock heating to become apparent!

Bill: Hey Bob, something strange. I've got us flying level in a straight line, but the rudders are trying to yaw us right for some reason.

This is cause for concern because the control surfaces require electrical power, and the RAPIER engines don't generate power. Since half of their flight takes place in the dark, they will rely on batteries for electrical power.

Bob: The rudder control appears to be getting stronger to the right, but I'm actually seeing our velocity vector pointed slightly to the left. We're drifting north a little bit. Crosswinds?

As the sun sets and they fly through the night side, the rudder inputs from the autopilot begin to drain the battery, and they input course corrections, pointing their heading slightly south to counteract the northward drift. Whatever is causing this drift eventually becomes too strong for the control surfaces to handle, and the shuttle begins an uncontrolled yaw to the left.

Bill: Oh *** there it goes!

Autopilot switched off.

Bob: Damn, can you hold it?

Bill: No, it really wants to yaw left. I'm going to try rolling it back.

Bob: Oh, damn! Look at the fuel guages!

Bill realizes the right outboard fuel tank has only half the volume as the left.

Bill: Wow, how did we not notice that? Turn on the pumps and equalize the tanks while I get this under control.

Bob forces the fuel tanks to equalize and control authority comes back before the shuttle loses control, which could have potentually resulted in a flat spin. In that time, they lose 4km of altitude and 300m/s of speed. Almost two thirds of the battery power had been drained in the first half of the night side. Apparently, the inboard engines had only been drawing from the right fuel tank, instead of equally from both. Gradually the center of mass shifted left, while the thrust vector stayed straight. This off-balance mass commanded a yaw to the left, which, for a while, the control surfaces were able to contain. Eventually the imbalance became too much to hold attitude, nearly resulting in a loss of control.

By the time the sun rises, the rudders are straight and the shuttle is balanced again. Without having to work so hard to hold attitude, the batteries have more than enough power to last.

They begin to drop altitude on just the inboard engines. The clouds have mostly cleared away from KSC by now. Most of the flight took place between 23 and 24km altitude, and anywhere from 1500 to 1650 m/s velocity.

On final approach, lowering the landing gear.

After a successful landing, Bill and Bob get out. The shuttle has one full cargo tank of fuel to spare, plus a little extra: 923 liters of fuel remain, the shuttle having burned 3221 liters during the flight. A tense and dramatic, but ultimately successful mission!

So, add long-distance cargo/passenger plane to the list of the shuttle's qualifications. This is probably my favourite creation so far.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Did you post a craft file of this before now? If not - can you do so? Would love to test some of this myself.

[KeithStone]

That shuttle is NICE! I know I've seen the flat shielded docking port before, what mod is it from?

Awesome stuff, cant wait for more!

[Cashen]

Did you post a craft file of this before now? If not - can you do so? Would love to test some of this myself.

No. I've not posted any craft files of anything before actually. You're the first to ask. I uploaded it here if you want to have a look. Just keep in mind that it has parts from B9, NovaPunch, KAS, MechJeb, and Lazor Systems. It might also have some stuff from KW on it, I forget where the battery packs are from. Also keep in mind I may make changes to the Shuttle, so that's just what the design is right now.

EDIT: You'll have to mess around with the action groups, because there's a bunch of them.

1: Toggles all engines between air-breathing and closed cycle. The engines are set to switch manually, not automatically. The Shuttle is heavy enough that it won't spin out when the engines starve for air, you'll notice a slight yaw to one side and that's your cue to switch when ascending.

2-3: These toggle the inboard and outboard engines, so you can fly with just the outboard (4 engines) or just the inboard (2 engines). This is useful for approach and landing, when you want lower power and finer control. Inboard-only is useful in space when making small burns, because lower thrust gives you more control. I forget which is which offhand.

4-5: These toggle the left outboard and right outboard engines, producing asymmetric thrust, useful for powered steering on the ground (probably not good to use while flying). I think 4 is left and 5 is right.

That shuttle is NICE! I know I've seen the flat shielded docking port before, what mod is it from?

Awesome stuff, cant wait for more!

The docking port is from B9, as is most of the Shuttle's parts.

Thanks for reading!

Edited May 5, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Mun Exploratin Mission 3

Hopefully nobody's forgotten all the cool stuff MASEC has going on in the Kerbin system! We sure haven't. The Duna mission gets a lot of press, understandably, but there is still plenty of valid exploration happening close to home. In this instance, the kerbals at Mun Station are going to attempt the first exploration mission significantly far away from Mun's equator. They're actually targeting a location they believe to be the lowest point on Mun's surface. In order to be so far out of the orbital plane of Mun station, they'll need some help.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• Undock the Aten CTV and the NAMLARV from Mun Station, and dock them together
  
• Use the Aten's nuclear engine to perform a plane change burn to around 35 degrees inclined from the equator.
  
• Undock NAMLARV and land at the target location.
  
• Detach the Fennec rover and attempt to locate and plant a flag at the lowest point on Mun's surface.
  
• Explore the local geography.
  
• Launch due east into an inclined orbit.
  
• Have the Aten CTV match planes with NAMLARV, dock, perform another plane change burn back into the equatorial plane, and return to the station
  
• Crew: Kirmin Kerman (Aten Pilot), Ellorf Kerman (NAMLARV Pilot/Fennec Driver), Kennie Kerman (Geologist)
  

NAMLARV was designed purely to land on Mun, and return to orbit. It doesn't have the power to do significant plane changes and therefore, on its own, is limited to regions close to the equator. The crew transport vehicle, though, is not so limited, and so it can be used as a "command module" to ferry NAMLARV around. In this case, they'll be exploring a deep crater depression in Mun's northern hemisphere. Here, Kirmin undocks from the station, while Ellorf and Kennie are already in position. Don't mind the TAC Fuel Balancer menu, I didn't realize it was still there when I took the first couple screenshots. Also notice that, somehow, one of NAMLARV's solar panels is missing. I don't remember losing it, and there's no debris corresponding to it in the tracking station, but, whatever. It looks weird but functions fine.

Plane changes aren't actually that expensive at Mun, due to the slow orbital velocities. Here's a look at the orbit they want. The landing site is at the far left of the frame. Dunlie Kerman, the station's commander, has instructed the crew that if Fennec is unable to drive down into the craters, they can use their personal RCS packs to complete the trip.

The combined spacecraft just prior to undocking. Kirmin will remain in orbit. However, by the time NAMLARV is ready to leave again, Mun's slow rotation will have taken their landing site out of his orbital plane, so another plane change will be required to get re-docked.

Ellorf: Okay, engines are on, we're coming in!

The tip of the visible flame is pointing right about where they want to land. You may recall Richbur's remark about NAMLARV needing a long time to slow down.

Ellorf: Engines throttling down now, we're dropping almost straight in. We look to be about 10km west south west of the target.

Kennie: Bingo! Nice view you got there!

This is Ellorf's first mission to the surface of another celestial body. Kennie, on the other hand, was the second Kerbal to walk on Minmus. The pair become the seventh and eighth Kerbals to land on Mun, respectively.

Ellorf: Seems to work just fine with one solar panel.

Here we see their landing site, with Kirmin still in orbit. They land at the southwestern fringe of a large impact depression, near a pair of small craters north and east of them. Further east is a larger set of craters, the bottom of which is their target.

Before setting off, they consult the topographic map of the area, zoomed in on where they are. The blue area represents land below the reference altitude, which is what attracted the station's attention when planning this mission. THe plan is to drive there in a more or less straight line along the south edge of those smaller craters, and return along the north edge.

And they're off! As is usual, Ellorf, the engineer, is driving, looking after the machinery, while Kennie, the geologist, is the one doing the science and exploration, sitting in the rear seat with the science equipment. This is actually the first drive using the upgraded Fennec rover. It has powerful, narrow beam headlights facing forward, and weaker but wide beam lights in the rear, so Kennie can observ the soil they're driving over.

Ellorf: Okay, we're at the edge of the main depression. Now, I remember from the topo map that all three of these small, interior craters are below zero altitude. Do you know which one specifically is the lowest? The slopes here are real steep, I don't want to risk going somewhere we don't have to.

Kirmin, in orbit: Roger. It's the southernmost of the three.

Kennie: Oh, the one right in front of us. Perfect.

The pair move south a little bit to find a relatively shallow slope down. Nevertheless they're riding the brakes because it's steep!

This is where things get weird. Apparently this is a low-priority bug, but the camera is unable to properly go below zero altitude. If it does, everything goes dark. So I cannot have the camera zoomed in close to the rover, which means driving it is nearly impossible. Especially down steep slopes. But then, I have a stroke of genius, and thank my lucky stars for...

The Lazor Camera mounted on the front of Fennec. Even though Ellorf's head blocks part of my view, this camera functions just fine, and gives me a reasonably good forward view to work with. I'm able to successfuly navitage to the bottom of the crater by this method.

Ellorf plants the flag at the lowest point. This was really tricky to do because the Kerbals started glitching out on EVA, plus I don't have the camera when controlling them. Then I had to drive Fennec into position to see Ellorf and the flag in the camera's view to get a half-decent screenshot.

A wide shot showing the sun rising low over the horizon, with the plaque on the flag. This location is slightly on the far hemisphere of Mun, so Kerbin is not visible from here. The two spend some time dismounted in the crater, collecting samples.

Once they climb back out of the crater, we can see where the flag is, and off in the distance, where NAMLARV is parked. Note to self: Don't go below zero altitude again. It's not worth the headache.

Kennie: Wow that's a scary view looking down like this. I remember guys talking about how well Fennec can climb, but it's something else to actually see it!

Ellorf: Hah, yeah! You're right; at least I don't have to look down while I'm doing this. Though I bet you can see a lot back there.

Kennie: I can see the whole crater and all of our tracks!

This is one of the small craters that was visible in the map earlier. Here they pass along its northern rim on the way back.

Approaching NAMLARV with its distinctive single solar panel. Ellorf will carefully drive Fennec right underneath the lander.

While we've all seen this before, I still think it's really cool. While Ellorf parks the rover, Kennie dismounts and re-latches the rover to the lander's winch, before the rover is lifted and locked into place.

And they're off again! The right half of the image is taken up by the large crater they ventured into, with the lower interior one where their flag is planted.

Ellorf snaps a memorable photo of a crescent Kerbin appearing over the horizon. Looking back home never gets old either.

Kirmin isn't far behind them, at a higher altitude. The big landing crater with the three smaller interior ones is visible to the left of the engine in this shot, with Kerbin just appearing over the limb of Mun.

The two craft re-dock and make the trip back home to the station, before separating to dock indivually to the station's docking ports.

A frustrating mission to accomplish on my part due to the buggyness, but that seemed to make accomplishing it all the more satisfying!

Kirmin Kerman:

Ellorf Kerman:

Kennie Kerman:

[Scotius]

Cashen, it's possible to attach new solar panel to Athen using KAS Grab and Attach function. Just take it from another craft, and slap in the place of a missing panel - for the sake of safety and redundance of course

[Cashen]

Cashen, it's possible to attach new solar panel to Athen using KAS Grab and Attach function. Just take it from another craft, and slap in the place of a missing panel - for the sake of safety and redundance of course

That's definitely one thing I need to do is experiment with KAS more, for parts stuff like that. Might be useful for repairs a long way from home.

[cwheels32]

What Mods are you using for the science parts on your probes? I.E the mapping of the terrain

[Cashen]

What Mods are you using for the science parts on your probes? I.E the mapping of the terrain

That would be the SCANSat mod.

[Cashen]

Isis XIX & XX: RAMSES Moho & Eeloo

Project Isis' plan to "map everything" is humming right along. Five RAMSES probes are active (Kerbin, Mun, Minmus, Duna & Ike) and another five are on their way somewhere (All five of Jool's moons). The only problem with RAMSES is that it's big and heavy and so requires a substantial launcher. Recall that the launches to Jool were performed using huge Lupus V launch vehicles, occasionally with strap-on solid boosters and larger upper stages. So, when fortune came along and aligned a transfer window with Moho and one with Eeloo, the innermost and outermost planets, within just a couple of days of each other, Isis just had to do something, and fortunately, an even larger launch vehicle is ready to make its first flight!

Mission Outline & Objectives

• First launch of the Lupus X (Lupus 10) super-heavy launch vehicle.
  
• Deploy RAMSES probes to both Moho and Eeloo
  

Isis 19, the RAMSES Moho launch. The core is mostly a Lupus V rocket, with the L-IC lower stage and L-II second stage, but the third stage is a huge L-IVD stage, using the largest 3.75m fuel tank. Four L-IIIB radial boosters, each sporting three NovaPunch Bearcat engines, and equipped with fuel crossfeed, are added to lift the huge vehicle off the pad.

A total of seventeen bearcat engines fire at liftoff!

The boosters are too big for separation motors to work properly. They simply slide away while the rocket is still vertical

The L-II places the payload in orbit. Including the L-II and its residual fuel, about 205 tons was placed in low Kerbin orbit. The L-II would separate and de-orbit itself. Also notice the upper stage engine has been changed. This marks the first flight of the Kerbodyne KR-2L Advanced Engine, which is also the first time a Kerbodyne engine has flown with MASEC. It offers higher thrust and higher efficiency than the KW Rocketry Wildcat-XR, which had flown as the upper stage engine on all previous Lupus series launches.

The next day, Isis 20, RAMSES Eeloo.

Separation of the L-IC stage and payload fairing jettison at the start of the L-II burn. The rocket actually flies extremely well. The ascent is broken into three phases: Vertical while the boosters are attached, 45 degrees pitch during the L-IC burn, and a slow pitch down to horizontal during the L-II burn.

Isis 19 makes its ejection burn for Moho on Kerbin's day side. The Eeloo mission would eject on the night side, and is not shown.

Leaving Kerbin's sphere of influence.

Normally I wait and do some missions between launch and arrival of probes and long distance flights, but a trip to Moho is extremely quick. It actually arrives at Moho before the guys coming back from Duna arrive, and since that's the next thing I want to get done, I decide to fast forward to the arrival at Moho. Don't worry, we'll hear from the Eeloo flight again, but not for a long while.

The approach to Moho is rather straightforward. The transfer stage doesn't have enough energy to capture into orbit, but the hyperbolic trajectory is going to hit Moho. So, the engine points at Moho and burns until stage depletion, killing about 3.5 km/s of excess velocity.

Then, the stage is ejected. The probe corrects to a polar inclination and adjusts its trajectory away from an impact, aiming for a periapsis of 490 km. The L-IVD stage will smash into Moho.

With the sensors active, they begin scanning even before orbital capture, and as shown here, almost instantly RAMSES detects a kethane reservoir under Moho's surface. This further lends credence to the theory that kethane is abundant everywhere in the solar system!

Arriving over the north pole of Moho, RAMSES begins its orbital capture burn. Notice that the small KW Rocketry engine has been swapped out for one of the FtMN 40 nuclear engines. This gives RAMSES about 1500 m/s of additional deltaV, which was deemed necessary for this mission. It turns out not to be, but, better to be safe, yeah? RAMSES has deliberately avoided anything nuclear in its design, ever since scandal broke out when Isis 8 crashed its IKSS probe into Eve after failing to make Gilly orbit, resulting in the spread of the IKSS' RTG nuclear fuel into Eve's atmosphere.

Moho's rotation is slow, but within a few days a nearly complete kethane map is achieved.

The terrain mapping is even more impressive. 100% coverage after one full revolution of Moho under the probe, generating this lovely topographic map of Moho. It's a heavily cratered airless planet, with brown highlands and very dark and smooth lowlands and crater interiors.

RAMSES also uses it onboard camera to take photographs of Moho from long distance. It snaps this photo of Moho's north polar region and discoveres something unusual. It appears to be a cone shaped depression of substantial size!

Analyzing the topographical map indicates the hole may be as much as five kilometers deep (note the elevation registering as 375m, compared to the 5-6km elevation around it). This warrants some closer investigation!

When passing Moho's south pole, RAMSES performs a burn to lower its periapsis extremely close over the north pole. All that extra deltaV has come in handy!

RAMSES flies over the north pole at just a few thousand meters above the surface at traveling at nearly a thousand meters per second, but snaps a photo looking straight down the hole from directly above!

Moho had been a low priority target which is why it (along with Eeloo and Dres) had not been targeted for any missions until now. Only Dres remains, as far as celestial bodies that don't have something on them, or on the way to them. The discovery of this hole in Moho's north polar region has interested MASEC geologists, however! Nobody's talking about manned exploration yet, but the idea of a probe to land on the surface, perhaps a rover, is already being discussed.

[Scotius]

Ah ha! Quest for Mohole! I've never been there...

[Cashen]

Project Anubis Returns Home

It's been a long adventure for Mac, Wildon, Richbur, Jedlock, Gilfal, Jonbart and Wehrrigh, but they are about to return to Kerbin as conquering heroes from an alien world!

Mac Kerman: On the approach home, we were all watching Kerbin out the window, usually with binoculars or the onboard telescope. Since we were approaching from further out, eventually Kerbin disappeared in the glare of the sun, but we could still see it with solar filters, kind of like a transit but not really moving. Gradually it got bigger and bigger to the point that we were able to see, essentially, a total solar eclipse. Then we started to swing towards Kerbin's prograde side and got this picture, with Mun at the lower right.

Richbur plots an aerobreake, with a periapsis of just 31,000 meters, aiming to get captured with an apoapsis of 500km. Still high over Kerbin but falling fast, they've retracted the solar panels and oriented themselves engine-first.

They pass low through the atmosphere, and, looking backwards, they can see Kerbin's surface relatively close! It's been a while since they've been here, and while Duna was spectacular, it's nice to be home.

Wildon: Mountains!

Mac: Forget that! Water!

The light show is pretty impressive!

They get captured into a proper orbit and make preparations to rendezvous with UKS Kerbin Station. The Aten Interplanetary Exploration Vehicle cannot re-enter and land, so they'll need another way to actually get home. In the meantime, Jonbart and Wehrrigh seem happy, with the view of a cloudy Kerbin out the window.

Cue the shuttle. With a total capacity of eight Kerbals, it takes off around the same time, with only a single pilot: Jebediah Kerman.

Jeb docks to Kerbin Station in preparatin for the arrival of the Aten IEV.

Desbree Kerman: Well hello there! Long time no see, guys! Good to see you back agian.

Mac Kerman: Good to be back again!

Three craft docked to Kerbin Station. The Aten IEV on the left and the Shuttle at the top. The Anubis crew transfer from their vehicle (which will remain docked here until it's needed again for some future interplanetary mission) over to the Shuttle to come home in.

Jeb undocks from the station in preparation to return. Mac sits up front with Jeb, the other six stay in the passenger cabin.

Mac: Wow, what a view out these huge windows! We'd only heard and seen pictures of this thing while we were on Duna.

Jeb: Yeah it's a pretty amazing machine!

This time the re-entry looks perfect, right on target. The only thing: It's cloudy at KSC. They've taken off and ascended through clouds before, but never had to deal with them coming back.

Mac looks out the window at the clouds as the Shuttle descends through them. You can see the slight nose-down attitude on the navball.

In spite of the clouds, looks to be a perfect approach. Almost home!

They land successfully, and are welcomed home as heroes. Here, all seven members of Project Anubis(plus Jebediah on the left) pose for a photograph in front of the Shuttle. Welcome home, boys!

[Scotius]

Congratulations It was a long and interesting mission, now it's good to see everyone back home and in good shape.

[FishInferno]

just out of curiosity, what are all the mods you are using? Glad to see some new missions!

[Cashen]

just out of curiosity, what are all the mods you are using? Glad to see some new missions!

Here's a complete list, more or less:

Active Texture Manager

AIES Aerospace

B9 Aerospace

Crew Manafest

Distant Object Enhancement

Kerbal Engineer

Environmental Visual Enhancement

FusTek Space Station Parts

Graphotron 2000

KAS

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Kethane

Kommit-Nucleonics

KW Rocketry

MechJeb

Tal's Spherical Fuel Tanks, including spherical Kethane tanks

NovaPunch 2

Protractor

Lazor Camera and Lazor Docking Camera (but not the complete Lazor systems mod)

SCANsat

THSS Trusses

[FishInferno]

Here's a complete list, more or less:

Active Texture Manager

AIES Aerospace

B9 Aerospace

Crew Manafest

Distant Object Enhancement

Kerbal Engineer

Environmental Visual Enhancement

FusTek Space Station Parts

Graphotron 2000

KAS

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Kethane

Kommit-Nucleonics

KW Rocketry

MechJeb

Tal's Spherical Fuel Tanks, including spherical Kethane tanks

NovaPunch 2

Protractor

Lazor Camera and Lazor Docking Camera (but not the complete Lazor systems mod)

SCANsat

THSS Trusses

Wow that's alot of mods. And they are all compatible with .23.5?

[Cashen]

Wow that's alot of mods. And they are all compatible with .23.5?

Yep! B9 and AIES haven't been updated in a long time but they're essentially parts mods which are hard to break with game updates. The others are all more or less up to date and function fine. The only one that worries me is FusTek because I know the next major update will break craft files and all three of my space stations use parts from it. I have no idea when that update will occur, and I'm kind of hoping its before I assemble any more stations further away from Kerbin.

On another topic, get ready for a huge update. I'm assembling what will be my largest post in this thread to date, documenting a mission that took me two days to finish and is taking another day just to write the post for.

[FishInferno]

Yep! B9 and AIES haven't been updated in a long time but they're essentially parts mods which are hard to break with game updates. The others are all more or less up to date and function fine. The only one that worries me is FusTek because I know the next major update will break craft files and all three of my space stations use parts from it. I have no idea when that update will occur, and I'm kind of hoping its before I assemble any more stations further away from Kerbin.

On another topic, get ready for a huge update. I'm assembling what will be my largest post in this thread to date, documenting a mission that took me two days to finish and is taking another day just to write the post for.

Cool! I think I might make a separate install with those mods, they go well together.

Just make some "disaster" happen that destroyed the stations before the update breaks them:P jk lol. Can't wait for the new mission!

[FishInferno]

Any hints as to what this mission will be exactly?

[Cashen]

Project Isis arrives at Jool

Bear with me here as this will be by far the longest and largest post I've done in this thread. In all, eight probes were sent to the Jool system on six launches, spaced out over two launch windows, and all arrived over a span of about 10 days. In the first launch window, the Jool/Laythe Science Package, containing atmospheric probes for Jool and Laythe, as well as a probe to land on Laythe was launched. Alongside it were RAMSES probes for Laythe, Bop and Pol (RAMSES Jool A, B and C). They were sent on a low-energy transfer. The next launch window saw two more launches (RAMSES Jool D and E) destined for Vall and Tylo, on a much higher energy transfer in order to catch up to the probes already on their way.

In the interest of clarity, the following is not in chronological order of what happened. Thanks to Kerbal Alarm Clock I was able to juggle so many missions back and forth as they required attention, but I will instead present the results per celestial object, starting with Jool and moving outwards. As a note, all measured and displayed quantities (such as temperature, pressure and molecular weight) in this post are either actual in-game measurements, or values calculated from those in-game measurements using the proper equations. Nothing is made up except my interpretation of said data.

MASEC has given destinations to the five RAMSES probes based on the remaining deltaV in their transfer stages (all RAMSES probes have around 2100 m/s of their own deltaV in addition to this)

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 50%, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]Launch Designation[/TD]

[TD]Transfer Stage Delta-V (m/s)[/TD]

[TD]New Designation[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]RAMSES Jool A[/TD]

[TD]565[/TD]

[TD]RAMSES Laythe[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]RAMSES Jool B[/TD]

[TD]658[/TD]

[TD]RAMSES Bop[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]RAMSES Jool C[/TD]

[TD]652[/TD]

[TD]RAMSES Pol[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]RAMSES Jool D[/TD]

[TD]1194[/TD]

[TD]RAMSES Vall[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]RAMSES Jool E[/TD]

[TD]1424[/TD]

[TD]RAMSES Tylo[/TD]

[/TR][/TABLE]

Jool

The Jool/Laythe Atmosphere Package arrives in Jool's massive sphere of influence. Carried on a single package are two atmospheric probes (the cylindrical objects), dubbed the Isis Jool Atmosphere Probe (IAP Jool) and the Isis Laythe Atmosphere & Oceanic Probe (IAOP Laythe). Both are roughly the same as the IAOP Eve probe. They are subtly different. The Jool probe has no parachute and is on a suicide mission to Jool's atmosphere to study it. The Laythe probe has a parachute and in addition to studying Laythe's atmosphere, will spash down into its oceans to study them as well. Further back on the vehicle is the Isis Laythe Atmosphere & Landing Probe (IALP Laythe) which will attempt to land on solid ground on Laythe and transmit back pictures. In this photograph, the IAP Jool probe has separated from the rest of the spacecraft, and will, using its own tiny propulsion system, navitage itself to Jool.

IAP Jool makes a flyby of Tylo on its approach to impact Jool's atmosphere. Vall and Laythe are visible in the background.

The probe adjusts its approach to ensure impact with Jool, and jettisons its tiny little propulsion system as it rapidly accelerates toward the gas giant.

All the sensors activate. I had to do an update of the Graphotoron 2000 mod (the 0.23 update had broken it), but it works now and is recording all important data, such as temperature and pressure, as the probe smashes into Jool's atmosphere at interplanetary speeds.

The forces experienced are far too much for the internal gyros to hold attitude, and as the probe slows to where shock heating is no longer an issue, it begins to tumble on its side. Jool's atmosphere is, understandably, extremely thick.

By about 20km from the cloud tops or so, the probe is essentially falling gently straight down. Communications was lost around 5000 meters from the cloud tops, but investigation of Jool's upper atmosphere was successful.

Analysis of Jool's Upper Atmosphere

This figure tracks the probe during descent from entry interface around 135km up until the probe was lost at just under 5km. The velocity is relative to the local atmosphere (surface velocity instead of orbital velocity) and the dynamic pressure is shown. Prior missions had shown dynamic pressure in Pascals, but the dynamic pressure here is shown in kilopascals due to how high it was. These were the highest dynamic pressures seen in any re-entry.

Here we see the temperature and pressure of Jool's atmosphere as a function of altitude. The upper, tenuous atmosphere is quite cold, reaching nearly -250C at 100km. However, as the pressure increases in the lower parts of the atmosphere, the temperature rapidly begins to rise and becomes quite hot. Much hotter than expected. The pressure is extremely high, as one would expect in a gas giant, reaching just over 9 Kerbin atmospheres before the probe was lost. (Note that I did fudge the temperature numbers slightly. The actual recordings showed a temperature in the -300 to -400 range early on, which is impossible in Celcius as absolute zero is -273.15. So I instead converted the numbers as though they were instead recorded in Farenheit, where absolute zero is -460, into Celcius, and in that context they make much more sense.)

Both the gravitational acceleration and the atmosphere's density are quite high as well. Density was not directly measured, but can be calculated from velocity and dynamic pressure in the first figure.

This last figure uses the previously calaulated atmosphere density, plus pressure and temperature to calculate the average molecular weight of Jool's atmosphere, which can help in uderstanding its composition. As can be seen, the molecular weight is very low in the upper atmosphere, which consists mostly of hydrogen (weight of 1) and helium (weight of 4) and other light components. As one descends lower, the molecular weight increases. This is indicative of increasing concentrations of heavier gases, such as methane (weight of 16) ammonia (weight of 17) and carbon dioxide (weight of 44). In the denser atmosphere, the average molecular weight increses even further beyond this, indicating the presence of more complex, heavy molecules, potentially organic chemicals and kethane, lending Jool it's distinctive green colour.

Laythe

The rest of the Jool/Laythe Science Package, bound for Laythe, has a close encounter with Tylo, briefly entering its sphere of influence. This is not good, because it slightly bends the probe's inclination out of Jool's ecliptic plane, which will be trouble later on.

The probe swings around Jool, passing over its atmosphere, on a direct course for Laythe on the way out. Here, the onboard camera snaps a close photograph of Laythe's daytime surface, confirming that while Laythe is mostly ocean, there are in fact islands on its surface. Also note the clouds. Laythe looks surprisingly hospitable!

The combined probe first aerobrakes to get into an inclined and eccentric orbit around Laythe. Once captured, the IAOP probe would separate from the rest of the spacecraft.

The orbit is actually retrograde, highly inclined, and highly eccentric, but that's not really a big deal, since its a temporary orbit anyway. It stresses the importance of being more careful on your approach: Laythe is better thought of as a planet, as its large size and high gravity (larger than Duna, even) make it expensive to move around nearby, deltaV wise.

At this point, IAOP Laythe has separated and expended all of its fuel to get a proper intercept course with Laythe, aiming for a spashdown in the moon's oceans.

Much as IAP Jool did, the probe then jettisons its propulsion system. Note the parachute at the top: This probe is intended to survive.

Just like IAP Jool, the sensors are activated and begin recording just before entry interface. Here the probe lights up the sky as it punctures Laythe's atmosphere.

Mach effects as it passes through the cloud level.

The parachute opens as planned, and IAOP Laythe then gently coasts down to the ocean surface.

Successful splashdown on the surface of Laythe! The sensors were able to record atmospheric data right down to splashdown. Let's have a look.

Analysis of Laythe's Atmosphere

As before, we see the probe's re-entry profile, showing its surface relative velocity and the dynamic pressure. In this case, both parameters are much lower than those seen at Jool, as expected. The two stages of parachute opening can clearly be seen near the surface.

Perhaps the most interesting graph is this, showing the temperature and pressure of Laythe's atmosphere. The pressure is higher than would be expected for a moon. 80% of Kerbin's atmospheric pressure at sea level! The temperature is also higher than one would expect from this far away from the sun. In the last kilometer of altitude or so, the temperature actually rises a few degrees above freezing. Scientists theorize that tidal heating from being this close to Jool may account for this. This also explains the vast oceans of what is presumeably water on the surace (more on that later).

The acceleration due to gravity is quite high. Lower than Kerbin, but higher than Duna. As mentioned before, Laythe is better thought of as a planet in its own right, due to its size, gravity, and thick atmosphere, all of which surpass Duna.

Similar molecular weight calculations were performed as with Jool, and it was found that Laythe's atmosphere is not differentiated like Jool's. The avergae molecular weight changes extremely little with altitude, indicating much better vertical mixing. The average molecular weight throughout is essentially 27.8 kg/kgmol, which is extremely close to that of Kerbin. The eventual analysis shows that Laythe's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (28 kg/kgmol) with a substantial amount of oxygen (32 kg/kgmol) and ammonia (17 kg/kgmol). The quantity of oxygen is enough to support combusion inside air-breathing jet engines, but the ammonia makes the atmosphere impossible to breathe directly. Ammonia can burn in oxygen normally, but the mixture ratio in the atmosphere is well away from this combustion range (much too ammonia-rich), allowing the two gases to coexist. It's likely that reactions between them do happen, producing oxides of nitrogen and water in a potentially complex nitrogen cycle. The full processes which make this mixture stable are poorly understood, and may possibly be biologically driven.

Analysis of Laythe's surface liquid confirms that it is mostly water, with a substantial amount of ammonia mixed into it. This ammonia greatly reduces the freezing point and helps to keep the ocean liquid at all lattitudes, except at the poles where there are visible ice caps. While the temperature was above the normal freezing point of water, this measurement was near the equator, and variations with weather could easily bring temperatures below zero (such as at night, potentially). The presence of ammonia in the ocean explains the ammonia in the atmosphere. Ammonia is more volatile than water and will evaporate more easily. It's quite possible that rain on Laythe would be composed of mostly the ammonia portion of the liquid, and it may have an "ammonia cycle" analagous to Kerbin's water cycle. The ammonia in the ocean also makes the liquid quite basic (caustic) with a high pH, definitely not safe to drink or be exposed to for a Kerbal.

This image shows IAOP Laythe's landing point, on the prograde side and slightly on the far side from Jool, which is not visible in the sky from there (or could not be seen at the time due to clouds). The exact landing site is 9 degrees 38'33" North by 156 degrees 8'55" east.

IALP Laythe arrives one orbit later. The transfer stage remained attached during the initial entry, and burned to depletion in order to avoid missing land. Here it's discarded and aerodynamic forces carry it off to the right where it begins an uncontrolled tumble. This is just before re-entry heating, and you can see IALP's heat shield is still attached.

Entry goes smoothly and the heat shield was ejected. The parachute opens partially at the highest altitude possible to further slow the probe down and avoid landing long in the ocean.

It works, as the probe begins to drift down onto what appears like a sandy surface.

Touchdown on the surface of Laythe! The camera begins to pan around and examine the nearby geology. Note Vall visible in the sky. The surface here appears to be hard packed sand with occasional strewn boulders. There is significant evidence of weathering in the soil and surface rocks. There are no discernable traces of life on the surface, such as vegetation. The possability of life in the oceans remains.

The probe's landing site, at 22.23 degrees South by 113.096 degrees west. The elevation is 458 meters and the local atmospheric pressure is 71.33 kPa.

Now it's time to begin mapping Laythe. This is arguably the most important part of the mission for eventual manned exploration. In this case the approach trajectory was off, and required the transfer stage to burn to depletion to correct. RAMSES then corrected for proper aerobraking, but the upper stage is lost. It will swing past Laythe and eventually out of the Jool system entirely, a piece of space junk lost forever.

Mission tracking later determined that the spent upper stage actually achieved solar escape velocity due to the gravity slingshot from Jool, and will eventually leave the solar system entirely! Note that RAMSES Eeloo's trajectory is also visible here: Its mid-course correction burn took place during all of this, and was one of the probes on my list in Kerbal Alarm Clock to pay attention to.

RAMSES Laythe brakes into orbit, circular and polar at 125km. The orbit was initially low, to prioritize kethane scanning first, and mapping later.

Here we see the map of Laythe, completeed in low definition, and mostly complete in high definition. While mostly covered in water, there are numerous small islands. In particular, a large group to the right of the map near Laythe's prograde side. Most of the retrograde side is a huge expanse of ocean.

A nearly complete kethane map was also generated, to the point that a complete survey of all of Laythe's kethane reservoirs were detected and quantified. The results are presented in the following table.

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 50%, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]Reservior Location[/TD]

[TD]Accessable from Land?[/TD]

[TD]Reservior Volume (L)[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]27.3N 24.3W[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]485,305.7[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]19.6S 9.6W[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]460,782.3[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]34.4N 90.6E[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]443,493.9[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]43.1S 110.6W[/TD]

[TD]Maybe[/TD]

[TD]349,877.2[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]61.4N 140.0E[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]296,838.8[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]59.3N 31.4W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]295,667.8[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]59.1N 125.1W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]214,260.3[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]49.3S 165.2W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]192,805.1[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]27.5S 81.4W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]173,017.4[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]11.8N 64.7W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]168,018.6[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]16.1S 64.7E[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]105,467.7[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]36.2N 7.0E[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]80,646.5[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]74.3S 163.8W[/TD]

[TD]Maybe[/TD]

[TD]80,269.6[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]17.7S 24.7E[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]69,756.4[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]32.9N 49.3W[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]66,555.2[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]42.7S 3.4W[/TD]

[TD]No[/TD]

[TD]50,069.0[/TD]

[/TR][TR]

[TD]11.8N 152.3E[/TD]

[TD]Yes[/TD]

[TD]28,132.3[/TD]

[/TR][TR][/TABLE]

The important thing to note in this table is the large number of reservoirs that are accessable from land. Though some of them only overlap small parts of land, such as the fringe of an island, or a very small island, it was much more than expected. Nearly 53% of the total kethane volume discovered on Laythe is accessable from land. None of the reserviors in question however are also on the equator AND on the side of Laythe facing Jool, two key criteria for any permanent base, but the in-situ use of kethane on Laythe is a definite possability in the future!

An interesting fact about RAMSES in the Jool system. It has a large battery supply to enable it to remain powered during passes over a moon's night side. However, when the moon is behind Jool and the sun is blocked, the probe goes dead, until the sun re-appears. This meant that there were certain parts of the inner three moons that were difficult to map - they could only be mapped when the moon was exactly in front of Jool, 180 degrees away. These regions took longer to map due to this phenomenon, and it's something that any permanent structre at the Jool system must consider.

Vall

RAMSES Vall, along with RAMSES Tylo, were launched at a later launch window than the other missions, and plotted a much faster approach in trajectorites that would, if not for Jool, carry the probes out past the orbit of Eeloo. This is why they carry the larger upper stages and why they have more delta-V remaining on arrival. It also means they're going very fast. Here, RAMSES Vall performs an aerobraking at Jool. Given Vall's closeness to Jool and the extra speed, this was the lowest and brightest aerobreaking of the whole mission, at an altitude of just 115km, 20km inside Jool's atmosphere.

It turns out to be the most accurately plotted aerobrake yet. An encounter with Vall exists as soon as atmospheric exit, and a tiny correction is made to lower the Vall periapsis. In chronological order, RAMSES Vall is the first to actually complete its mission, while RAMSES Pol, visible in the long elliptical orbit, was the first to encounter Jool. All of the other probes are still approaching at this point.

RAMSES Vall approaches Vall by the same method used at Moho previously. The upper stage burns retrograde to depletion to kill as much excess velocity as possible, before ejected to impact the moon.

Orbital capture follows soon after. Unlike RAMSES Laythe, which started in a low orbit to prioritize kethane, RAMSES Vall starts off high to prioritize mapping, before swinging lower to assist the kethane scan.

A nearly complete topographical map is generated. Vall appears to be an ice moon, coloured slightly blue by the presence of some minerals. The lack of any cratering suggests that this icy surface is young, and periods of melting and re-freezing may occur due to tidal heating from Jool.

A patchy kethane map is also generated. Vall is a low priority target for kethane, as Bop and Pol are much easier and more likely targets for that. Vall will be more interesting for eventual surface exploration.

Tylo

Chronologically, RAMSES Tylo is the last mission to arrive. It, like RAMSES Vall, is from the second launch, indicated by the larger upper stage. It similarly aerobrakes at Jool, but not nearly as aggressively.

As it turns out, not aggressive enough, as the orbit is only brought down just inside that of Pol, instead of much closer to Tylo as had been desired.

Initally, a second aerobrake through Jool was considered, but since this mission has by far more delta-V to spare than any of the others, mission planners instead perform a small move at Jool apoapsis to get a proper Tylo encounter. Tylo has a large gravity well, and the backup plan, if this approach is too expensive, is a close flyby of Tylo to peform a negative gravity assist followed by a second aerobrake at Jool.

It turns out this approach is affordable, and the method of approaching Tylo is identical to that used at Moho and Vall previously.

RAMSES has no trouble getting into Tylo orbit to begin mapping.

Tylo is the largest moon in the entire Jool system, though it has no atmosphere, which is curious, considering Laythe. It appears to be a mixture of rock and ice, with ice covering the highlands and rock exposed in the lowlands, and crater bottoms. Its surface is older than Vall's, due to the visible cratering, suggesting that Tylo is less geologically active, perhaps due to its increased distance from Jool.

Like Vall, a patchy kethane map is also generated. Tylo is much like Vall in that it will be interesting for surface exploration, but it's extremely high gravity will make landing and taking off a challenge. It will require a whole new kind of landing vehicle that has not yet been designed, and so Tylo may be the last of Jool's moons to be explored up close.

Bop

RAMSES Bop has the more difficult task of reaching Bop's inclined orbit. Here, it gently aerobrakes in Jool's atmosphere at an altitude of about 124km.

The apoapsis is perfect, but a significant plane change burn was required at the decending node. This shows the first orbit This is after a periapsis boost at apoapsis, and after the plane change while heading back to Jool (that node was further away from Jool and therefore required less delta-v) Visible is a third burn at the new periapsis, planned to get a Bop encounter. The approach to Bop required the most burns.

An unfortuante side effect of this was the upper stage ran out of fuel during the plane change, shown here being discarded. By this time the Jool periapsis was well out of the atmosphere and the orbit was not yet in Bop's plane. So, this upper stage will remain a piece of space junk in an inclined and highly elliptical Jool orbit. Later, mission trackers would note that the stage's ascending node is just inside Vall's orbit, and it's descending node just inside Laythe's, so in the future the stage may be perturbed by encounters with Jool's inner moons.

Fortunately Bop is a fairly small moon requiring low velocities, and RAMSES had more than enough to get into orbit. The radar mapping was attempted, but Bop's extremely irregular surface made mapping difficult, as the variations in elevation are beyond the resolution of the scanner. Thus, the topographical map is not shown (it's mosty pure white, since most of Bop is greater than 8000 meters high. This may be fixed in a recent SCANsat update but I've not updated it in a while). In all, Bop is an irregular non-spherical body, but in spite of these large hills and valleys, it otherwise seems quite smooth, and may in fact be easy to land on.

The kethane map is patchy, but good enough to have inventoried the entire moon. Bop was interesting for kethane reasons and so it was prioritized to get an essentially complete picture of its surface. All kethane reserviors were cataloged as with Laythe, but that table is not presented here. Neevrtheless, a total of 18 reserviors were found, with a total volume of 4.4 million liters of kethane. Of this, 3 reserviors with a combined volume of 678,324 L (Around 15%) were easily accessable from equatorial regions.

Pol

A familiar sight at this point. RAMSES Pol was the first to arrive, chronologically, but the last we will be discussing today.

This was the first aerobrake and so the calculations were slight off, meaning the elliptical orbit continued out past Pol's orbit. However, a minor correction burn just after atmosphere exit was able to give a Pol encounter. Pol's orbit is only inclined a few degrees, making it easier to reach than Bop, even though Bop is technically closer.

The approach to Pol is also familiar, mirroring those at Vall and Tylo, with the stage burning to depletion and then being ejected.

RAMSES brakes into orbit at Pol, with Jool and the inner three moons visible in the background.

The topographic map of Pol. Pol is contrasted with Bop in that Pol is very close to spherical, and doesn't have wide differences in elevation. This is contrasted however with how rugged it is, with many steep slopes and jagged mountains, which may make landing on it difficult.

As with Bop, Pol is completely mapped and cataloged for kethane reserviors. While the total amount of kethane discovered, around 4.2 million liters, is slightly less than Bop, 1.25 million liters or just under 30% were accessable from regions within 10 degrees of the equator, making them more easily accessable. That being said, plane change away from the equator at Bop and Pol is probably highly inexpensive.

And that concludes Project Isis' tour of the Jool system! Next, we learn what Project Osiris decides to do with this new and plentiful information in planning the manned, permanent exploration of Jool's moons.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen